Live the Storm

Adding Entombed guitarist Uffe Cederlund to a group that already features At the Gates singer Tomas Lindberg has created a death'n'roll supergroup-- and one of the best heavy records of 2008 so far. Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou produces.

Some bands have all the luck: In 1998, Swedish D-beaters Disfear replaced original vocalist Jeppe Axelsson with At the Gates frontman and extreme-freelancer Tomas Lindberg. Talk about an upgrade (oldskoolers gasp!), the personnel shift gave the band the proper mouthpiece to keep up with its in-the-red pace, while basically guaranteeing extended ownership of the D-beat crown. So the entrance of Entombed guitarist Uffe Cederlund on this year's Live the Storm is almost unfair. As if anybody playing second fiddle wouldn't stoke the flames just fine, these guys went knocking on the door of the best Swedish death metal band not formed by Lindberg. Result: A death'n'roll supergroup, and one of the best heavy records of this still-young 2008.

But surprisingly, the most vital newcomer on Live the Storm is behind the boards. Filling the void left by engineer Mieszko Talarczyk (the Nasum grindcore legend who died in the 2004 Tsunami, and to whom the album is dedicated), Converge guitarist and God City impresario Kurt Ballou turns in some inspiring work. Though they try repeatedly-- on the fire-breathing title track, and the propulsive speed demon "Maps of War"-- Ballou never lets Disfear swing as low and scuzzy as they did on the dirt-sucking early stuff, or even on the Talarczyk-helmed 2003 grime-fest Misanthropic Generation.

Instead, his production offers a clarity and separation that serves this bulkier version of Disfear perfectly, underscoring the band's hardcore/D-beat roots (see: barreling drum sound) without eclipsing their death metal chops (see: hefty guitar tone). But best of all, Ballou is ultra-reverent toward that joyful beer-metal bluster that creeps out whenever Lindberg and co. decide its time for a fist-pumping gang-chant. Cue half-palmed feedback. Cue pick scrapes. Cue full band hollering the lines "A testament! Born out of desperation!" You get the picture.

Except for the extended intro on album-closing "Phantom", the tracks here almost always cut straight to the chase, hurdling straight for the chug. Lead salvo "Get It Off" finishes before it even starts, with bare-bones gusto and a nose-punch call-and-response chorus about freedom. Meanwhile, there's no bells or whistles on hulking album-standout "The Furnace", whose climax comes with the introduction of a simple riff-following police siren sandwiched between two choruses. And as far as beer-buddy moments go, "In Exodus" stands beside "Testament" as the album's paramount, peppered with a basement full of "whoa-oh-oh"'s.

Of course, if moments like these don't boil your blood, Live the Storm won't go down easy. It sticks pretty resolutely to the D-beat formula: hardcore drumming set against breakneck riffage and unintelligible howls about anarchy, working-stiffs-as-rats, and banding together to, you know, fight. But for anyone who digs the blue-collar energy of Darkest Hour, the focused assault of From Ashes Rise, the beer-swilling madness of Motörhead (or the fact that metal could actually be this fun), Disfear has written a great rock record-- way long on aggression, way short on bullshit, and boundlessly enjoyable.